MBA Applications Way Up at Yale, Ross

Soojin Kwon, Ross School of Business

“In talking to colleagues at other schools, it seems like app volumes this year are quite varied,” Kwon says in an email. “We did a number of things differently this recruiting year – mostly centered around getting more student stories out there through multiple channels – email, videos, webinars, student and admissions blogs, social media (not just Ross’ but also the personal networks of students and alumni), and mobilizing our community to ‘spread the word’ about their Ross experience.”

WORD OF MOUTH IS KEY PATHWAY

The vast majority of Ross applicants learn about the school from friends, family, and co-workers, Kwon says. “So we stepped up our engagement of our most valuable and productive resource – our community.”

Business schools’ websites tend to look so similar that “if you deleted the names and logos of schools, it would be hard to tell them apart,” Kwon says. “Candidates come to learn this quickly. So after learning the basics about a school through a website, they want to hear ‘the real story’: What kinds of experiences do students have? How do they view their experience during and after school? That’s what we focused more on this year – sharing that perspective through all channels.”

“We’re fortunate to have thousands of storytellers all over the world. That’s what we’re tapping into.”

The Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2014 Applications Trend Survey found that 61% of global full-time two-year MBA programs participating in the survey reported application growth – up from 50% of programs in 2013 and only 43% in 2012. It was the first time in five years that a majority of schools reported an increase–though some of those increases were significant. At the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School applications rose a whopping 28%, largely fueled by a 44% boost in apps from international candidates. Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business reported a 23% increase. The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is reporting the largest single increase of all: a 73.8% rise in applications.

However, 2014 saw another drop in the number of people in the U.S. taking the GMAT in preparation for business school, to 87,110, a steep slide from 2012’s 117,511, when test taking was boosted by people who were attempting to avoid a new integrated reasoning section of the GMAT that was about to be introduced. That decline has been offset by more test takers internationally, but also by an increasing number of applicants who are taking the Graduate Record Examination instead of the GMAT especially because now all the major business schools, including hold out Chicago Booth, accept the GRE.

DON’T MISS: APPS TO FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAMS UP